Search results for "Politics"
showing 10 items of 2266 documents
Statistical Analysis of the Indicators that have Influenced the Standard of Living in Romania During the Economic Crisis
2015
Abstract As all the countries in the world, Romania is going through a period of large and deep economic, financial and social changes. The negative effects of the economic crisis are well known: Increase of unemployment rate, sharp decrease of incomes because of the imposed political measures and decrease of purchasing power resulting in a decrease of the quality of life. The quality of life may be assessed based on several macroeconomic indicators, such as: GD per capita, population incomes or expenses, population consumption, indicators that are the foundation of the analyses that may help taking decisions regarding the social and economic policies aimed to the increase of the standard o…
Income inequality, fiscal stimuli and political (in)stability
2016
Using data for a large panel of countries, this paper investigates the role played by income inequality and fiscal stimuli episodes in shaping the likelihood of political stability. By means of Tobit estimations, we show that a rise in inequality increases the probability of government crises. However, such adverse distributional effect is reduced when expansionary or increasingly expansionary fiscal stimuli episodes or successful fiscal stimuli programs are put in place.
IMF lending arrangements in emerging and developing countries – participation and prediction
2016
AbstractThe literature on determinants of International Monetary Fund (IMF) interventions in emerging and developing countries shows that the IMF’s decisions are determined by political and economic causes. This article empirically investigates economic factors, showing that a country’s probability to sign an IMF arrangement can be predicted by looking at a core group of macroeconomic variables. Using discriminant analysis we develop a score function that allows us to predict a country’s future participation in IMF programmes. The study covers 153 emerging and developing countries, over more than 30 years (1980–2011) and 654 agreements, for both non-concessional and concessional loans. The …
What determines the likelihood of structural reforms?
2015
We use data for a panel of 60 countries over the period 1980–2005 to investigate the main drivers of the likelihood of structural reforms. We find that: (i) external debt crises are the main trigger of financial and banking reforms; (ii) inflation and banking crises are the key drivers of external capital account reforms; (iii) banking crises also hasten financial reforms; and (iv) economic recessions play an important role in promoting the necessary consensus for financial, capital, banking and trade reforms, especially in the group of OECD-countries. Additionally, we also observe that the degree of globalisation is relevant for financial reforms, in particular in the group of non-OECD cou…
Political, Institutional, and Economic Factors Underlying Deficit Volatility
2013
It is well known that fiscal policy can counter-cyclically smooth out the effect of unexpected shocks and public deficit volatility may reflect the (optimal) policy response to them. However, the welfare losses associated to fiscal instability are also an important challenge for many countries, as it typically implies an inefficient allocation of resources, higher sovereign risk premium and an inadequate provision of public services. In this paper, we empirically analyze the political, institutional, and economic sources of public deficit volatility. Using the system-generalized method-of-moments (GMM) estimator for linear dynamic panel data models and a sample of 125 countries analyzed fro…
DERECHOS, ESCEPTICISMO Y MAYORITARISMO: UN TRIÁNGULO IMPOSIBLE. UNA CRÍTICA A LA TEORÍA DE LA LEGITIMIDAD POLÍTICA DE JEREMY WALDRON
2019
El trabajo reconstruye y analiza críticamente la respuesta de Jeremy Waldron a importantes problemas sobre política y derecho, justicia y autoridad. Waldron reivindica al mismo tiempo una tesis no escéptica sobre la existencia los derechos morales-políticos, una tesis escéptica sobre la existencia de procedimientos epistémicos superiores para identificarlos, y una tesis positiva sobre la legitimidad política (mayoritarismo participativo). El trabajo argumenta que su respuesta solo resulta consistente si se añade un cuarto vértice: el presupuesto de “igualdad de agencia y capacidad epistémica” en los portadores de derechos. Pero su introducción requiere abandonar y redefinir dos de los otros…
Federalism and Party Democracy in West Germany
2011
According to Gerhard Lehmbruch, there is a growing inconsistency in West Germany between the principles of a federal polity and party democracy, primarily because the former relies on bargaining, and the latter relies on majority rule as a mechanism of conflict regulation. However, comparative analyses have shown that federalism and party competition are not incompatible. Generally, federal structures are neither detrimental nor conducive to the recruitment function of parties. Competence and experience as a parliamentary leader or as a specialist is the most essential precondition for advancement to national executive positions. The integrative capacities of political parties may even be s…
Development and Validation of the ADAS Scale and Prediction of Attitudes Toward Affective-Sexual Diversity Among Spanish Secondary Students
2017
Violence against non-heterosexual adolescents in educational contexts remains a worrying reality, but no adequate attitudes toward affective-sexual diversity (AtASD) measure exists for Spanish adolescent students. We developed a 27-item scale including cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects, which was completed by 696 secondary school students from the Madrid area. Factor analyses suggested a unidimensional model, Cronbach's alpha indicated excellent scale scores reliability, and item calibration under the item response theory framework showed that the scale is especially informative for homophobic attitudes. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that variables traditiona…
Research in China
2009
My stay in China began in November 1985 with a lecture at the opening of the Max Planck Guest Laboratory in the Institute of Cell Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Shanghai (Hennig, 2000). It marked the beginning of 23 years of research and teaching at the Institute of Cell Biology and other universities throughout China. > Looking back after 23 years, the changes that have taken place in China could not have been predicted in 1985… In January 2001, I accepted a long‐term lectureship offered by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; Bonn, Germany), which, with further support from CAS, allowed me to create my own research group within the Shanghai Institutes for Biolo…
Validation of the Beliefs about Children's Adjustment in Same-Sex Families Scale in Italian University Students.
2019
Assessing attitudes toward same-sex parenting has important implications for both intervention and prevention programs designed to foster the tolerance and normality of sexual and family diversity. Few empirically validated measures of rejection of same-sex parenting have been developed. The current study examined the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Beliefs about Children's Adjustment in Same-Sex Families Scale, a 14-item scale distributed in two subscales that measure direct and subtle rejection toward same-sex parenting, for its use in assessing heterosexual people's attitudes toward same-sex parents in Italy. The sample consisted of 344 Italian heterosexual unive…